Earlier this month, Tesla CEO Elon Musk set an ambitious target of producing 1,000 Model 3 cars in a single day. This week, Tesla reached that goal, the news site Electrek reported.
Musk confirmed the achievement in a letter to Tesla (TSLA) staff, which was obtained by Electrek, before urging employees to maintain that production rate, which requires them to be able to steadily produce 50 Model 3 units per hour.
“If you are able to help in any way with getting Model 3 production to a steady 1000 per day at excellent quality, everyone at the company should please consider this their top priority,” Musk’s email said. “Body production currently appears to be our limiting factor, so it needs the most support right now.”
Tesla’s stock rose 2.7% to $350.48 Friday.
Musk also urged staff to focus on reducing production costs in their respective areas of production, even if that meant reducing costs by mere pennies, as part of Tesla’s goal to profitably price a standard Model 3 car at $35,000.
“It’s important to bear in mind that the cost of the car is made up of about 10,000 unique parts and processes,” the email said. “Depending on how you count it, the current cost of a standard range Model 3 would be around $38,000, so each part or process step only costs around $3.80. That means finding cost efficiencies is a game of pennies, even though it might not seem so.”
The Tesla CEO has relentlessly pushed to increase production levels of the Model 3, which analyst have seen as a make-or-break product for the company. In the third quarter, Tesla produced a record 83,500 Model 3s, exceeding analyst forecasts. Two weeks ago, Musk told workers he would tour Tesla’s production floor this week to help reach the 1,000-a-day goal.
